And my argument is, whether this is true or not, it's not rational to keep saying it over and over because that doesn't accomplish anything. What's rational is to try to do something about it. — Hippyhead
Sorry, blatantly false statement. Once it's seen that suffering is made of thought, the door is open to do something about it. You already saw this when you said failure is subjective. — Hippyhead
The child is most likely starving because most people have not bothered to try to manage their suffering, or have no idea how, and thus seek to fill the empty void in their souls with various forms of greed. — Hippyhead
I don't object to such a weighing process, so long as it is subservient to a serious attempt to maximize the good and minimize the bad. I do object to such a process if it is a replacement for constructive action. — Hippyhead
why is doing something rational — Augustusea
yes, and its subjectiveness means one man's happiness is anothers suffering — Augustusea
there is no happiness without suffering
why do things need to maximize good
Well, if we actually want to suffer, then I suppose it isn't. Let's take a poll. Everybody who wants to suffer, please raise your hand! Sorry to be sarcastic, but do we really have to debate this? — Hippyhead
Suffering is made of thought. Literally made of thought. That's what I'm referring to. So to the degree one is not thinking, suffering vanishes. And that absence of suffering does not cause suffering in another. — Hippyhead
There is truth in what you say here. There is however a third option which is neither happiness or suffering. Let's call it peace, just to apply a convenient label. — Hippyhead
Happiness is, say, when we want something and we get it. Suffering is when we want something and don't get it. Peace is when we don't want. — Hippyhead
Both happiness and suffering are made of thought. Thought will inevitably generate the dance between the two. And we have to think to survive, so some degree of suffering is inevitable. We agree on this.
So as human beings we can't escape suffering completely.
But we CAN manage the level of suffering. — Hippyhead
Do you want to suffer? Yes? Or No?
If yes, then that is your right and none of anybody else's business.
If no, then a rational conversation would focus on maximizing the good. — Hippyhead
you cannot just stop thinking about depression — Augustusea
a man can never not want, unless that man no longer is
doesn't mean the suffering won't be there.
Determinism is clear, a man cannot want what he wants.A person who feels this way might ask themselves, how much effort have they invested in seeing if that's true? If none, then that explains that. — Hippyhead
Suffering is made of thought. Five words, which contain a path forward if you want it. — Hippyhead
suffering is not temporary to surpass, it is permanent, it is infact life itself, meaning you ultimately are just suffering with breaks,
you might feel happy now, tomorrow you will probably feel worse, there will always be that bad day, always, there is no escaping that — Augustusea
I do not have a choice, neither do you is the point, its the inevitability of our condition — Augustusea
You have the right to believe that if that's what works for you. I'm not an evangelist. I'm not going to try to shove an alternative down your throat. Should you express a wish to discuss an alternative I'm willing, but I will respect your choice until then. — Hippyhead
ITS NOT A CHOICE, no one has choice, determinism prevails, but alright, take care — Augustusea
You mentioned choices to not suffer, but the choice never to be put in the game of making choices to not suffer is never on the table. — schopenhauer1
No one had a choice for this surivival, comfort, entertainment game, nor many contingent circumstances they are affected by. — schopenhauer1
It was best never to have been.
All the pessemist has now is communities of consolation with likeminded people, ones to share gripes and commiserate and find catharsis in shared griping. — schopenhauer1
If you wish to argue that what you're describing is rational, you have a long way to go yet, imho. — Hippyhead
You are using rational as a vague signal that means nothing. Its a weasel word that stands for "what you believe to be right and true". — schopenhauer1
My argument is that it's not rational to declare "life equals suffering" until all these constructive remedies have been explored. — Hippyhead
No one has a choice?! Many people live without this dogmatic view of suffering and prosper. — Asif
I'm hungry right now, and have the choice to go eat.
Later I'll be tired, and will have the choice to take a nap.
If I start suffering in my mind, I have the choice to do something about that too.
We have the choice to let go of the sweeping grand philosophical claims, and get practical and real. That is, rational. And we have the choice not to do that too. — Hippyhead
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